720 ILCS 5/17-10.5(b)(1) – Aggravated Insurance Fraud
This law makes it a serious crime to commit insurance fraud three or more times within 18 months.
If someone lies or cheats to get money from an insurance company three or more times in a year and a half, each from different situations, it counts as aggravated insurance fraud, which is a more severe type of insurance fraud.
(b) Aggravated insurance fraud.
- A person commits aggravated insurance fraud on a private entity when they commit insurance fraud 3 or more times within an 18-month period, and each act comes from a different event or deal.
(d) Sentence:
- Committing aggravated insurance fruad is a Class 1 felony, regardless of how much money was stolen or attempted to be stolen. This is a very serious sentence that can result in years of prison time.
- Anyone found guilty must repay the insurance company or other victims for financial losses, including court costs and attorney’s fees.
- A person can also be punished for both committing insurance fraud and plotting or organizing insurance fraud.
(e) Civil damages for insurance fraud.
- If someone lies to get money from an insurance company, they must pay back either three times the money wrongfully received or twice the value of what they tried to get–whichever is higher–plus attorney’s fees.
- However, if an insurance company sues someone in bad faith (without good reason), that company must pay the person twice the amount claimed, plus attorney’s fees.
(f) Determination of property value. If the exact dollar amount isn’t listed, the “value” means the fair market replacement value or the reasonable cost to replace or reimburse services.
(g) Actions by State licensing agencies.
- State police and licensing agencies must work together to enforce this law.
- If someone with a professional license in Illinois is convicted of insurance fraud, the Illinois State Police must tell all licensing agencies.
- Those agencies must report within 6 months on what actions were taken, such as suspending or revoking the person’s license.
(h) Definitions. Words like “obtain,” “deception,” and “property” have the same meanings as they do in Article 15 of the Illinois Criminal Code.
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